"How many kids do you actually think you have, Ronald?" asks Katz in that strange, mild mannered way of his.
"I have three children of my own and I act as a father for Shella Pains between her mother's relationships. Why?"
"Now Ronald, we both know that isn't true. Shella worked out a little while ago that you're not her biological father but she admittedly still thinks of you as dad. But what I meant is, do you realise what role you seem to be playing for a lot of the young people in this organisation? You travel from cell to cell with that Bonnie girl, who as far as it goes, may as well be your wife. You play with those kids who don't have parents and you spread joy to even those who do. I think that counts as more of a father than most of the men in this rabble."
"Or maybe it makes me like a cross between Santa, Ronald McDonald and the grim reaper. I come along and sometimes their parents don't come back."
"You know Ronald, I think you sell yourself a little short. I've never seen a little girl look so proud as little Lynn when she found out that her daddy was actually the weird blonde fellow who held hands with her mother and rescued her from the monsters in the closet."
"Heh, yeah, most dads don't take their kids into the realm that the monsters live in and show them how t hurt the things, do they?"
"No, they don't. Who's the only person willing to beat little Ryu-chan in sparring?"
"That would be me."
"And why do you do that?"
"Because it's the only way he'll learn."
"Exactly. And why don't the other's beat him?"
"Some of them actually can't but the rest are trying to avoid upsetting Yori."
"You know that she still asks about you every time I go out there?" Katz had upgraded himself to some kind of multi-faith spiritual leader in the wake of the rebellion. 'Faith, is the only thing keeping us human,' he liked to say these days.
"No, I didn't know that. What does Hirotaka have to say about that?"
"He's jealous, as you might expect, but he knows that if he asked you, you'd not even kiss her cheek in greeting. He's not jealous of what you might do, he's jealous that you were her first love. Besides, he gets his own back by asking about Bonnie."
I can't help but laugh at that.
"Happy families in the east, eh?"
"Oh yes. Steven thinks the world of you too you know. Natalie wouldn't obey a word he said until you came along."
"The man's a soldier. Is it any wonder he couldn't get through to his child?"
"You believe that she's his?"
"Does it matter? She isn't mine any more than her sister is and he loves that little chocolate bear like no other. They're lucky to have one another. She brings out the best in him."
"Remember when you said that to me about you and someone else, Ronald?"
Indeed I do.
Nearly seven years ago…
"Look, Rabbi, I really don't understand what I'm doing here."
I pause and look around his office for a moment. Office really isn't the right word but hey, it's a room with all the weird knick-knacks that a religious leader accumulates over the years. There are trophies and music memorabilia and framed tickets to Moon Beyond Ios.
"You're talking about your feelings, presumably about becoming the figurehead to mister Lodden's rebel movement," he replies in a way that can only be described as Jewish. Put this man and Woody Allen in a room and they'd reach critical mass.
"I guess I am but I don't understand why. I'm not a leader, I never have been. I was a sidekick for nearly four years and risked my life for the insane girl I eventually fell for and failed to save."
"Ronald, you have an exemplary record. According to the files that Mr Lodden gave me when he asked me to become your 'second-in-command' here, you saved Kimberly on no less than a dozen occasions. She may have done the same for you many more times, but that still shows a great deal of courage on your part."
I sit silently as he continues.
"There is an example on record where Mr Lodden's android form and yourself went to the darkest Amazon to try to collect a flower to save her life. You took fought no less than four villains in one afternoon to attempt to find a library book of all things. I'd say that you had a hell of a lot more courage than Kim did, especially with your inferior abilities at the time. Now, you're some kind of combined strength messiah, if I understood that Immortal fellow correctly."
"Something like that. Look, powerful, brave and loyal I may be, but I'm no hero and people have no business following me anywhere."
"Why do you say that Ronald?"
"Heroes don't kill. I have and I will again if I need to. Kim didn't kill but I do apparently. Maybe she just brought out the best in me; maybe that's why I never killed anyone…"
"From what I can tell from Kim's record, she could have killed any number of times. Why do you think that you did and she didn't?"
"I don't know, Rabbi. You want me to say that she was a better person? Because that seems like a forgone conclusion at this point," I reply, the weight of the world bearing down on me.
"Actually, Ronald, I'm pretty sure that you're the only reason that she kept herself together all those times. And I think she stopped you from doing anything that could have been considered vicious."
"Maybe she brought out the best in me, but that doesn't help the fact that I'm a murderer."
"Honestly, Ron, I don't think that she did anything to actually stop you, while I have footage on that thing," he says pointing to a Kimmunicator with an archive memory unit, "that shows you talking her down or holding her wrists to stop her beating people during the darker moments. She wept openly because you told her that you were disappointed in her once. I think that despite your flaws, Ronald, you bring out the best in people, not Kim."
"Pretty dream, Rabbi."
"Answer me this, Ronald, if you're not the hero everyone makes out, why the hell did you save Bonnie that night three years ago?"
Back in the present…
"And what happened just one day later?"
"Steve's cell got attacked and I lead the relief effort. That was the night that Monique got caught in the disruptor blast and I had to help save her."
"Modesty really isn't a becoming thing on you, Ronald, you feel that you have nothing to admit to and it irritates me. You rescued her from the street after she collapsed and single-handedly held up the advance of Drakken's forces to get her to safety."
"Calling anything I do with duplication 'single-handed' is pushing definitions a little, Rabbi."
"Just because you do it with magic and Kim did it with the ability to jump far further than Lodden was ever able to explain doesn't make your efforts any different."
I pause for a second, remembering Wade waxing on about that very subject. I'd never really given the whole leaping twenty feet into the air thing much thought but she did it routinely. Wade couldn't figure it, as if her joints were behaving like those of a non-humanoid. The idea of Kim with the legs of a grasshopper was strange, but she wore it well.
There was something about the weight spiral effect or some such that made it practically impossible for a human to jump more than about seven feet but I can't say that I understood what he was talking about, I myself could happily jump thirty feet before I learned to fly.
"Look, Jerry," I begin, using the name I've not dared use in all the years I've known the man, "I'm just a normal guy who happens to have gifts, trying to make the world a better place. If I brighten a few children's days, then more the better. I have a big heart, that's what made it so easy for Arahat to train me. Now, was there something else?"
"Yes. I think we should talk about Damien. He idolises you, you know."
Author's Note: Not entirely sure if i should keep the time designations here. The wonders of the Orient never cease...
